A playable version of unreleased arcade puzzle game SEGASonic Bros has been spotted in the wild this past weekend, as a build was discovered at US classic gaming enthusiast show California Extreme.
This hidden gem was first discovered a couple of years ago (we reported on it here – and here, when its puzzle roots were unearthed), and was originally intended for release on SEGA’s System 32 arcade hardware in 1992. Unfortunately the game, which was designed by Bubble Bobble creator Fukio Mitsuji, failed a location test in Japan and never ended up seeing light of day.
But thanks to an arcade aficionado named ‘ShouTime’, a working board of the game was present at the California expo. As you can see in the videos below, courtesy of ‘JohnshiBRPG‘ and ‘Stupid Space Gun‘, the game is a little complicated; blocks of different coloured Sonic characters (blue, red and yellow) fall in fours towards the bottom of the screen. Players have to build clumps of same-coloured Sonic balls, then surround them with Sonic balls of a different colour in order to clear the screen.
It’s harder than it looks, and a bit difficult to explain, but after watching the videos below you can get a sense of what’s going on. If you chain big combos together, you get to electrocute Dr Eggman. So that’s nice.
It’s amazing that even today, news and details of old Sonic games that we’ve barely even heard about can come out of the woodwork. Would you play a puzzle game like this? Let us know in the comments section below!
Via ResetERA / Rlan
Can’t wait for this to be a boss in Sonic Mania 2.
Replace the 2 un-named hedgehogs with tails and knuckles and put it in mania 2
See, these could have been Sonic recolors in Smash.
Also, Segasonic likes their Blue/yellow/red.
(Sonic/Ray/Mighty).